I’m trapped at home with my website. Or maybe it’s trapped at home with me. While some are using the weird lump of time provided by lockdown to indulge in baking, dancing, painting, singing, I’m using it to play around with code.

我 被自己的网站困在家里。 又或者它被困在家里。 尽管有些人使用锁定提供的奇怪时间来沉迷于烘烤，跳舞，绘画和唱歌，但我却在用它来玩代码。

My site has been hosted by Squarespace (you know, from adverts, all the adverts) for over ten years now. I’ve lost count of the wild variation of iterations it’s been through in that time. Thanks to the ease at which the platform allows you to edit the appearance and structure of your site, there is a constant temptation to mess with it. It’s my own private little sandbox, somewhere to try out new approaches, new aesthetics. Most of the time, back when time actually meant something, I would simply dip in and give it a tweak here and there. But perpetual indoorsiness has seen me dipping in more often, making more significant adjustments. It’ll start out harmlessly enough — maybe I’ll try out a new typeface, shift a column or two, maybe add some pages and … before I know it I’m wading in and breaking and fixing and changing everything.

我的网站由Squarespace(从广告中了解所有广告)托管至今已有十多年了。 我忘记了那段时间经历的疯狂的迭代变化。 由于该平台使您可以轻松地编辑网站的外观和结构，因此不断有诱惑力来干扰它。 这是我自己的私人小沙盒，可以尝试新方法，新美学。 在大多数情况下，当时间真正意味着某种意义时，我会简单地浸入其中并对其进行调整。 但是，永久的室内环境使我更加频繁地投入，进行了更重大的调整。 它会以无害的方式开始-也许我会尝试一种新的字体，移动一两列，也许添加一些页面，然后……在我不知不觉中就涉足并破坏，修复和更改了所有内容。

There are a number of preset themes to start you off, all of which can be customised. Most basic cosmetic changes can be done with sliders and menus, but this approach can only get you so far; to really get into the design you have to delve a little deeper and open the CSS editor.

有许多预设主题可以让您开始，所有这些主题都可以自定义。 大多数基本的外观更改都可以通过滑块和菜单来完成，但是这种方法只能带您深入。 要真正进入设计，您必须更深入地研究并打开CSS编辑器。

And this is where I start meddling in things I don’t completely understand.

这就是我开始干预我不完全了解的事情的地方。

As with countless other designers who remember the heady days of life before Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, I have Myspace to thank for my rudimentary understanding of CSS. Back then, way back then, if you weren’t content to project your online persona through music lists alone, you could sneak in through a back door and add code to try on some garish new colours, backdrop or type. This relatively radical notion of editing the CSS of a site — even if it was just a few lines — resulted in a slew of tutorials, shared knowledge and new skills. Sure the results were, without exception, awful, but at least they were your results. Once you get a taste of that godlike power to change a site’s appearance, it’s hard to go back

与无数其他设计师一样，他们还记得Facebook，Twitter或Instagram之前的生活，我感谢Myspace对CSS的基本理解。 那时，那时候，如果您不满足于仅通过音乐列表来投射在线角色，则可以潜入后门并添加代码以尝试一些华丽的新颜色，背景或类型。 编辑站点CSS的这种相对激进的想法-即使只有几行-导致了大量的教程，共享知识和新技能。 当然，结果肯定是可怕的，但至少它们是您的结果。 一旦您了解了改变站点外观的神力，便很难回头

Skip ahead fifteen or so years and I still know just enough to mostly not break anything too important. With some trial and error, I can pop the bonnet and make this little style over here look like what’s in my head. Which can be incredibly satisfying.

跳过十五年左右，我仍然知道，几乎不会破坏任何太重要的内容。 经过反复试验，我可以打开引擎盖，使这里的小样式看起来像我的脑海。 令人难以置信的令人满意。

The problem is, this piecemeal tinkering approach doesn’t take place within a larger plan. It’s more like mutation than design. Incremental cosmetic changes gradually, imperceptibly eat away at the fundamental structure of the site, and I find myself questioning the purpose of the whole endeavour; goalposts constantly shifted by aesthetic half-accidents. Well this type hierarchy would look simply darling in a minimal type-only blog context, I’ll ponder, maybe I’ll give that a go. It’s upside-down design, bad habits I know I should avoid but fall into anyway. The tail is pulverising the dog.

问题是，这种零星的修补方法不会在更大的计划中发生。 它更像是突变，而不是设计。 渐进式的装饰性变化会逐渐掩盖现场的基本结构，而我发现自己对整个尝试的目的提出了质疑。 审美半事故不断使球门柱发生变化。 好吧，这种类型层次结构在纯类型的最小博客上下文中看起来似乎很可爱，我会思考， 也许我会同意。 这是颠倒的设计，我知道我应该避免但要沉迷于坏习惯。 尾巴把狗弄成粉。

In the last few weeks, my site has been: a one page portfolio with nothing but some images and a few lines of contact details; a resurrection of long-abandoned blog posts stretched back over the last fifteen years; a fresh new blog just waiting for content dedicated to some yet to be decided niche subject; a pseudo-tumblr endless stack of cool images; one enormous type-only quasi-twitter link-dump incorporating three thematically distinct blog feeds (don’t ask). It’s been minimal, maximal, stylish, garish.

在过去的几周中，我的网站一直是：一页的投资组合，除了一些图片和几行联系方式外，什么都没有； 在过去的15年中复活了被遗弃的博客文章； 一个新的新博客，正在等待专门针对尚未确定的利基主题的内容； 伪图像无穷无尽的漂亮图像堆栈； 一个巨大的仅准类推特链接转储，其中包含三个主题截然不同的博客供稿(不要问)。 它是最小，最大，时尚，华丽的。

I’ll be happy for a few days and then I’ll pop back into the editor to nudge something a couple of pixels to the left and then the whole process starts again.

我会开心几天，然后回到编辑器中，向左微移一些像素，然后整个过程再次开始。

There is nobody there to stay STOP. No client, no deadline, no hovering art director. And it doesn’t end at the boundaries of my URL — the direction of my site starts influencing my approach to associated social media timelines. My Instagram is a constant victim of this fickle online identity, a grid of images reflecting something that refused to sit still. The project has no boundaries or deadlines or scope whatsoever. Nothing is right or wrong or finished or good enough.

没有人在那里停留。 没有客户，没有截止日期，没有徘徊的艺术总监。 它并不仅限于URL的边界-网站的方向开始影响我对相关社交媒体时间轴的处理方式。 我的Instagram一直是这种多变的在线身份的长期受害者，网上的一堆图像反映了拒绝坐着的东西。 该项目没有任何界限，期限或范围。 没有什么是对，错，完成或不够好。

I convince myself it’s a productive exercise, a means to keep that design muscle moving in my own corner of the internet, somewhere to fidget and distract myself from everything. If I had regular visitors, the constant flux of my site would be a disorienting experience. Fortunately, the analytics — which I learnt long ago to not care about, lest I go insane — suggest I have nobody to worry about. I’m doing all of this for an audience of one. And he’s a pain in the arse.

我说服自己这是一个有用的练习，一种手段来保持这种设计肌肉我自己对互联网的角落移动，地方坐立不安和一切分散自己。 如果我有固定的访问者，那么网站的不断变化将是一种令人迷惑的体验。 幸运的是，我很早以前就学过的分析法，以免我发疯，以至于我没有人担心。 我正在为一个观众做所有这一切。 而且他是个混蛋。

At some point I do need to stop though. Tinkering is encroaching on whatever time I can carve out of lockdown life to do genuinely productive endeavours. My sandbox has become quicksand. Whatever shape it takes, the bottom line is that my site is meant to be a shop window that leads to work; if the window is forever under construction, it’s of no use to anybody. Somebody please just take it off my hands and let me get on with this new normal that everyone is raving about.

在某些时候，我确实需要停下来。 修补匠正在蚕食我可以在锁定生活中付出的任何时间，以进行真正富有成效的工作。 我的沙箱已变成流沙。 不管形状如何，最重要的是我的网站应该是通向工作的商店橱窗； 如果窗户永远在建造中，对任何人都没有用。 有人请把它从我手上拿开，让我继续接受每个人都热衷的新常态。

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Daniel Benneworth Grey is a freelance book designer based in York. As well as writing his own blog, Daniel writes a regular column for Creative Review and creates “Meanwhile”, a newsletter about design.

Daniel Benneworth Gray是总部位于约克的自由书设计师。 除了撰写自己的博客外 ，Daniel还为Creative Review撰写了定期专栏，并创建了有关设计的新闻通讯“ Meanwhile”。

Loz Ives is a graphic designer, typographer and drawer of things. In 2012 he co-founded design and technology studio Fieldwork.

洛兹·艾夫斯 ( Loz Ives)是图形设计师，版式设计师和事物抽屉。 2012年，他与他人共同创立了设计和技术工作室Fieldwork 。

Umbrella Studios is a creative agency and co-working space that champions freelance creativity in all forms. #FreelancersUnite

Umbrella Studios是一个创意代理和共同工作空间，可倡导各种形式的自由创意。 #FreelancersUnite